Join us this Saturday, June 29, 2013, for a FREE film screening at the Detroit Film Theatre inside the DIA, followed by a reception in the DIA’s beautiful Rivera Court (where the Diego Rivera murals are). Peep the flyer and help spread the word:

April 9, 2011

I found some old journals, with a series of poems that I wrote four years ago, when my daughter was just a baby, learning to walk and talk. Here are one weekend’s worth of my favorite haikus: poems that have exactly 17 syllables, usually with three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables each. Coincidentally, I wrote these when she was 17 months old, a very precious age. With thanks to: our Detroiters Dream for Children group for their constant inspiration; to Julia Putnam and Jackie Victor for always asking, “Where do we see hope in the city for our children?”; and to Grace and Jimmy Boggsfor always asking, “What can we be that our children can see?”

April 4, 2011

Here is the poem that I performed yesterday at Grace and Scott’s book party. It was an honor to share the stage with Danny Glover (who wrote the Foreword to the book), Grace, Scott, Kathy Sanchez, Alice Jennings, Starlet, Diana Nucera, Jenny Lee, Invincible and Blair. It was an amazing event; thank you to Catherine Jun of the Detroit News for her article on it here: http://tinyurl.com/DetNewsTNAR

I wrote this poem after reading this:

“Grace Lee Boggs says she would like the chapter titles of her new book, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, written with Scott Kurashige, to become buzzwords for progressive activists.” ~ Larry Gabriel, Metro Times, March 30, 2011

The bold-faced items below are the titles of each chapter; there are also some great links (in brown font) to some of the references. Thank you to everyone who made this possible, especially Rich Feldman who pushed me to perform.

“We live at a very dangerous time because these questions are no longer abstractions. . . Art can help us to envision the new cultural images we need to grow our souls.” ~Grace Lee Boggs, The Next American Revolution

“Yes, of course I do. She’s a good friend of ours. She’s Anak’s Auntie Ilana.”

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, she knows Invincible! She knows Invincible!” he screamed, jumping and grabbing all the hip hop heads. Pretty soon they were all around me starry-eyed saying, “We LOVE Invincible. We LOVE Shapeshifters. Do you have her new album Shapeshifters?

“Of course I do, we’re investors.” (Partner later told me that we’re actually not “financial” investors, but I told him we should be.) Anyway, I don’t know what they would’ve done if I told them Ilana gave us the rough cut of the CD too.

The fans continued, “Oh my god, we were waiting and waiting for years for Invincible to come out with her own album, and then when she came out with Shapeshiftersthis year, we were so happy!

“So happy. It is off the hook!” another said.

“Oh my god, you know Invincible. We are such big fans of Invincible. Wait, wait, how do you know her?”

“We were all volunteers with this intergenerational youth program called Detroit Summer–“

“Oh yeah, yeah, yeah! We know Detroit Summer. From her song ‘Locusts‘.“

I don’t know what they would’ve done if I told them we gave Ilana half of our household items when we left Detroit (all of which are embarrassingly described in last month’s incredible Metro Times cover story, here).

Yes, Detroit Winter: “if you can’t take the winter, you don’t deserve the summer.” I think these fans might have a heart attack if I show them the pictures on my computer of PPP’s live show (with Invincible) from Detroit’s Taste Fest ’05.

“Hey, if you guys want to bring her out here for a show, she can stay with us, no problem. Just let me know. We can call her right now.”

“That would be so dope. We should do that,” they said.

SO SISTAHFRIEND ILANA:

I think you’re way overdue for a Boston show.

And Anak would love to see you too!!! 🙂

Now, I tell this story because it was so heartwarming to see that these young bloods all the way in Boston love Invincible just as much as those of us in Detroit do. They recognize her true gift with words and music. After all her years of struggle and serving our community, she deserves recognition and success, especially with her new album. Shapeshifters.

I also tell this story because it shows how really small this world is. AND that if you find the radical/progressive artists in any city, they are going to know YOU/your radical/progressive artist friends too.

I mean, if you are currently an artist-activist from Detroit and you don’tknow Invincible, then you are either: